Going...Going...Gone

Funny
Remember not too long ago Son ran his car into a telephone pole rendering him carless? Well, this is so ironic and such logical consequences that I have to share it. After his car sat in the drive for a period of time while we (his parents) pondered what to do with it, we decided to have it towed to a local community college for a project in one of the tech. programs. One of Son's classes didn't make and he ended up in the class where his car, "the project" is. Now here's the fun part, his teacher gave him as his project his own car to fix! Isn't that ironic? He bashed it and now he has to do all the repair work himself and he'll be graded on it! I love logical consequences!

Blah Blah
So two days are down in teaching and a lot more to go. I like teaching class, but it is stressful at this point because I still have 5 field days to get scheduled and I can't schedule the live text until the field is scheduled and blah blah blah. So now they tell me they need to talk about the field experience and I'm going in early Monday just for that.

I also have to begin grading lesson plans on live text and I'm not sure exactly what to do because the instructions weren't exact. For example, I don't know whether to grade all lesson plans as a packet or one at a time or even where to get the assessment or, if I just grade the tech portion of the plan. It's something new added this year and and no one was sure how to go about it.

We went to the commissary today to get groceries in Indy. It is so much cheaper than any place else that it is worth the 80 miles it takes to get there. The PX is cheaper on many things too. I always feel sad when I go on a base or post that has been closed and taken over by the community. All the beautiful old houses are sold to private owners and the post that was once so well kept is not nearly as nice as when the army, navy, air force, etc. had it.

Talked to a friend from Poteau yesterday. It was nice to hear from her. She's one of my daughters friends and spent a lot of time at our house. She has a baby now and I have really missed her. I also miss Mexican food. There's not much of it here and it's not nearly as good as at home. We were talking about La Huerta's (I've forgotten how to spell it) and I wanted some of those fajita nacho's so badly I could nearly taste them!

Guess that's it for tonight.

Not So Typical First Day
The day began with our computer crashing after we rebooted. My husband thinks that a virus piggy-backed on one of the adds in IncrediMail. This has happened twice now and it is no fun. The day progresses on.

It's the first day of class. I think I mentioned that I am teaching a Sophomore class and also university supervisor for student teachers. Anyway, I have 16 kids in my 250 class. Most are girls, but there are 3 boys or should I say, young men and one of them has a mouth that likes the F word. Soon, very soon, like tomorrow, I'm going to have to tell the kid to lay off the language. You can't have a student go into field experience with elementary kids who has a problem slipping with that word.

Class went well except in an activity we did on perceptions. I made the comment to one of the girls that I perceived her as a partier. Hmm... she informed us all that for the previous three years she thought she was going to be a nun! Foot in mouth for me!

Later on I'm informed that I have to change my schedule from M,W,T to M,W, F. Ok, I'll do that, BUT I'm not going to all those meetings for the amount I'm being paid especially when they don't have anything to do with me. Ok, I feel better.

To end the day, while I'm up on the 11th floor of the education building, the fire alarm goes off. Oh goody! This loud alarm goes off and all the fire deals are flashing and I grab my stuff and head down 11 flights of stairs. When I get outside, the fire trucks are just arriving and there are lots of them. Hundreds of people were filing out of the building and I have to say, in an orderly fashion too. It could have been a terrible mess if the students hadn't managed themselves so well. I didn't wait around to see what happened (first day pranks maybe) but assume I'll find out tomorrow.

Okay Already...
Meetings, meetings, MEETINGS!! Why do education people think so many meetings are needed? My Master's is in Educational Administration and (here's that famous phrase) if I were in charge, the meetings agenda would be almost non-existent.

Year after year most of the people who were there the year before are there the next year. They're not going anywhere. They know the yearly meetings with their eyes closed. Why do they need to keep going to the same kinds of meeting every year. I can see having a meeting for changes in policy, procedure, new employees, accreditation and such; important things. But, to have the same boring meetings year after year is total stupidity.

Education institutions love to have their meetings (it doesn't matter whether they are public, private, or state run.) Each new year they begin to run around like chickens with their heads cut off screeching about something that needs to be done NOW when in fact, it's usually something they should have been working on for a long time (accreditation comes to mind) and most of what is considered to be so urgent (picture urgent, insistent voices propelling you on to yet another meeting and sounding for all their worth like a phone that won't stop ringing) isn't worth listening too. Most of it is someone else's worry or procrastination or something that has nothing to do with you.

Hmm, so someone is not sending me the emails that would cause me to have to attend any of the urgent, oh so urgent meetings. I however, don't feel sad about it and figure my life will progress along nicely without ever having stepped over the threshold into another boring meeting. How about you?

It's Beem Awhile

GOODBYE

Will heartache ever cease I ask

or will it always flow?

And will my love fade and die

or will it grow and grow?

Must I mask forevermore

the feelings deep inside

for the one I truly love

and now am forced to hide?

Oh, what a pity it wasn’t to be!

My heart will ever yearn,

for the man that instilled trust

in a woman such as me.


But alas, I am bound

and never can be free.

To late in life I lived and learned

he cared more for himself than me.

So the good duty I must do

no adultery did he sow

while silent tears flow deep inside

for the one I’ll never know.

And as I age in years ahead

my memories will stay

within my mind, within my heart

forever and a day.

So goodbye my love, but always know

my hearts no longer mine

it beats with yours forevermore

throughout eternal time.

Do you remember what it was like to be in love; really in love for the first time in your life? I'm talking about that heart-rending, gut wrenching, first grown up love, the one you never got over and if you were lucky, the one you're with now? I remember.....

Goin Nuts!
Ahhh....I'm goin' nuts! The class I took over starts next Wednesday and no one's told me too much of anything. I found out I'm to teach the students how to use a web based software called Live Text and I've never seen the thing myself. I also have to set up field classes because they haden't been set up. It's a mess, but hopefully I can pull it all together.

I've also got 4 student teachers at 4 different schools! Whew, what did I get myself into? I know I'll enjoy it all once I know what the heck I'm supposed to do but in the mean time, I'M GOIN' NUTS.....

Sad
Friday several fatal wrecks occurred one on I-70 close to my home and another on 40. The one on 70 happened because a Roadway semi didn't slow down while construction was going on and plowed over the top of a samll pickup killing both women. The struck couldn't stop by that time and hit 5 or 6 more cars before another semi ran in front of him and stopped him. I can't remember exactly now but 6 or 7 others went to the hospital.

A 3 year old girl was killed in the wreck on 40 because the car pulled out from a side road. One car switched lanes and missed it but the car behind that car hit the rear where the child was. I don't know about all of Indiana drivers, but Terre Haute drivers are terrible!

Quick
I'll be teaching a Sophomore class this semester and will also be university supervisor for some student teachers. They offered the class yesterday and the 23rd it starts. That doesn't give me much time to pull it together, but oh well. I'll do my best.

Found out today that the tag on Son's lovely car is not the one that belongs on it. The kid that sold it to him doesn't even have one for that car and will have to tag it and... so on and so forth. He just gets in deeper and deeper.

The dark hole where the dashboard is supposed to be.

The Edorado

BANG...
All's quiet and lookin' good and then bang...Son goes into full mode again and life revolves around him and all that he does. To begin with, all the illegal things I took from him throughout the year and had locked in my room, he took. Yep, he did! He jimmied the latch on our locked door, came in, and took it all. He then refused to return it saying it was his and blah, blah, blah. He'll be 18 in 2 weeks and I told him to either return it or when he reached age he would be moving out. I told him too, in no uncertain Okie terms that, "There's only room for one head dog in this house and you ain't it!"

Now we move on to incident two. I wrote a while back that he plowed his car into a phone pole after sneaking out of the house, in the rain, driving too fast, out past curfew and so on. He's had no car because we wouldn't have it repaired for him. He comes up with this idea that he wants to buy a 1977 Cadillac Eldorado from a friend of his for $200. We won't give him the money so he calls his mom and she sends it. We however, decide not to let him have it until he turns 18 on August 21. He talks his dad into letting him buy it this Sunday, but his dad tells him he can't bring it home because we know he will try to drive it. He brings it home anyway. Ok, so his dad takes his keys. Yesterday he wants the keys to roll the windows up and his dad tells him to give the keys back when he's through. Of course juvenile deliquent boy won't saying they are his keys and his dad jsut lets him get away with it. Since I'm the only one who seems to have any brains in this outfit I say, "Well, hey. You know he's going to try to leave tonight. He's on our insurance and wel'll be liable. He's already had 2 wrecks." Sure enough, he tries to get my daughter who's parked behind him to move her car so he can leave. She had enough fore-sight not to move her car so he had to sit.

Ok, now we have two pieces of junk sitting in our drive way both of which Son has caused. One is the car he wrecked hitting the pole and the other is the piece of junk he's dragged home; "The Eldorado." The dashboard's off, the body is a mixture of gold and primer gray. The tires are bald, it's held together by rust, and the top which has had it's cloth top ripped off is spotted with rust and pock marks. We call the wrecker to take junk car one for an estimate and to see if it's worth repairing. I had Son move junk car #2 beside the house whereupon I blocked him so he can't leave without bashing my TransAm and, I just dare him too! I told his dad if Son left under my watch in that piece of junk Eldorado, I'd call the police and let him suffer the consequences. Son thinks I can't assert authority in my own house, but we'll see. Son' already had two wrecks and if he goes out in that bomb it will be three. To date, we've paid his insurance, but no more. When he reaches 18 his insurance is his own and he can become responsible for his own actions.

Cousins

Brandy & Keelan wrestling.

From left to right: Rantz, Brandy, Ricky, Keelan, my mom, Rylee, and my niece Hailey.

Technology
We never did find what caused the problems with our computer. I assume it was some type of virus. We had to go out on the hard drive and find nearly all of our files. Our e-mail, Webshots, Word, etc. were there but acted as if they'd just been installed or used for the first time. For instance, the Webshot photo's were still on the hard drive, but were dumped out of the photo manager; that is, all were there except some of 2004. It dumped all the files out of Word, but left them on the hard drive. Weird!

Family left last Saturday and it's been a lonely week without them. It's hard not to see anyone you know, love, or care about for such a long time. It was good to see them.

I'll post a picture or two.

Computer & More
Much has been going on since the last time I blogged; some really nice and some pooh...
Yesterday, the computer appeared to have a virus although we couldn't find it. When I logged off, it was ok. When I logged back on it wiped out nearly everything in the tray. Ah..We're still working on it trying to recover what we can.

So...I'll write more when I get everything up and going including what Son did and my families recent visit.